Challenge

The Managed Network Services organization of a leading wireless service provider launched a major initiative to examine and restructure the way their Managed Network Services were sold, delivered and supported. They believed that their existing business and organizational models, processes and support structures and systems were inefficient, might not scale, and may not be capable of accelerating the sales of “services” and supporting growth that would more than double their existing business and become a $1B line of business.

To address these concerns, the provider initiated a major internal effort to:

• baseline existing processes, systems and support structures and centers
• determine process gaps
• determine key performance indicators and control points
• implement process improvements
• gather feedback from the sales team on customer perception and pain points.
• realign organizational structures to more optimally and efficiently support the managed services business

Concurrent with this effort, the provider needed an independent third party consulting partner to build upon this work by helping to create an end-state model for Managed Network Services. This model would update their service offerings to best-of-breed and would detail a set of highly efficient, effective and scalable processes and the related organizational structure that would support growth of this business unit to meet their objective.

The new model had to detail a cohesive, integrated end-to-end process including: sales, service delivery, provisioning, installation, care, and maintenance to provide a better overall customer experience and accelerate representation and sales of managed services.

Based upon its long-standing and trusting business relationship and a track record of success in similar projects, the carrier called on TMNG Global for help.

TMNG Global Solution

TMNG Global’s approach to this project began with a detailed review of the current client business and operational model, the associated processes and systems, the support centers, as well as a careful examination of existing documentation. The team also conducted interviews with senior and middle management staff in Operations, Marketing, Product Development and Management, Provisioning, Customer Care and Service Assurance in multiple locations. This investigation was designed to gather and synthesize:

• Documentation of existing processes, organizational structure, staffing levels and roles and responsibilities
• Documentation of existing work centers and supporting process, systems and organization
• Assessments of customer needs, wants, and pain points
• Feedback from client sales teams
• Process improvement recommendations
• Product performance information and recommendations for product changes/enhancements

Based on the syntheses of this data and tempered by TMNG’s practical industry experience, knowledge of best industry practices, and familiarity with relevant key metrics, the team created a cohesive, highly integrated NextGen Services Business Model that would support current and future Managed Network Services offerings. The team created a business model that was highly effective and efficient, scalable and also one which would deliver a high level of customer satisfaction. As part of the effort associated with creating the business model, the team provided organizational recommendations along with staffing levels and roles and responsibilities. The plan included:

• Cohesive, integrated Order to Cash process including sales, order entry and management, service delivery, provisioning, installation, maintenance, care, billing, service assurance, etc.
• Best practices
• Metrics, control points, KPI’s and SLA’s
• Organizational structure, staffing levels, roles and responsibilities, etc.

After the NextGen business model was developed, the team provided a gap analysis (between this proposed end-state and the current state) and recommended remediations for each gap accompanied by a high level business case/financial analysis for each suggested remediation. The recommended remediations included organizational, process and system implications.

Finally, the TMNG Global team provided a transition plan which prioritized gap closures and moved the organization and processes from current state to the NextGen business model. This transition plan was designed so that it could be executed independently by the service provider’s team or accelerated by execution in conjunction with additional outside resources. The plan included recommended organizational and management structure, staffing levels and descriptions of roles and responsibilities. The detailed transition plan to the NextGen Managed Services business model included:

• PMO Structure
• Prioritization of transition activities
• Specific plans for each major transition activity

As the TMNG Global team developed the NextGen Services Business Model, they adhered to and supported the ITIL standards. ITIL provided a quality focus and the intra-process metrics and the inter-process SLA’s. TMNG designed the NextGen Services Business Model and supporting processes to the highest quality standards and industry leading best practices.

Detailed Deliverables

TMNG provided these key deliverables throughout the project:

• A comprehensive document detailing the NexGen Services Business Model for the service provider’s Managed Services Business including:
  • Level 1 Business and operational processes
  • Metrics, control points, key performance indicators and SLA’s
  • Best practice recommendations
    
• An organizational recommendation addressing:
  • Structure
  • Management structure
  • Roles and responsibilities
    
• Identification of gaps that need to be addressed prior to transition to NexGen business model including:
  • Identification of critical/short term gaps
  • Recommended remediations to address short term gaps
  • Suggested prioritization of proposed remediations
    
• A recommended transition plan including:
  • Time line
  • Prioritization
  • Project Management / PMO approach
    
• A presentation to senior management summarizing our work, findings, recommendations and proposed next steps.

Recommendations

For the service provider’s managed services business to grow to the desired level, a move to the recommended NextGen business model, which emphasized selling customer solutions rather than individual products, was imperative. Other specific recommendations included:

• A NextGen managed solutions business model that consolidates all key product development, solution design, service delivery and customer care functions into a single organization with total financial accountability and responsibility
• A dedicated Service Assurance team that focuses on lifecycle support for every Managed Services’ customer.
• The Managed Services function should be consolidated under a single Vice President who owns all managed solutions activities from sales thru lifecycle management. This organization would be totally accountable and responsible for delivering managed solutions on time, with quality and within budget.
• A best practice business model that creates an integrated sales-to-cash process that focuses on customer ownership and a single, dedicated service delivery team that is accountable to deliver the solution on time, with quality and within budget.
• A single point of contact and accountability for implementation and lifecycle support.
• A managed services business culture that is customer-focused, proactive and empowered to deliver a superior customer experience.
• Investigate a systems architecture plan that provides for automated data and information flow between systems, eliminating errors, omissions and re-keying of data.
• A transition to the NextGen Business Model should be accomplished by realigning the current organization to address immediate pain points, to increase the confidence of the sales force, to allow the service provider to compete more effectively in the “down market”, and to allow preparation of the business case to properly size the NexGen Business Model.
• In preparation for the consolidated organization, an organizational realignment that focuses customer ownership, solution design, service delivery and service assurance ownership within dedicated functional teams.
• TMNG Global provided the service provider with a list of Sales/Solution Design and Service Assurance – Customer Care Metrics that can be used to develop KPI dashboards for use by various levels of the organization. Installation intervals should be further defined to measure individual processes such as time to vendor confirmation, CPE delivery timeframes, etc.

Benefits to the Client

Client management clearly recognized the importance of the Managed Network Services revenue stream and service differentiator for its customers, however, their existing process improvement initiatives were more focused on the individual functional areas rather than the overall sales to cash process. Our engagement provided the client with an independent analysis, focused on a best practice business model that both supported client improvements and identified conflicting priorities in the proposed solutions. By officially recognizing the value of Managed Services through ownership and accountability, the service provider is now well positioned to build the product offerings, provide the sales and service organization the confidence to implement services, and aggressively move forward to revenue growth.

TMNG’s analysis was an objective and unbiased view of the process, system, and organization necessary to provide world-class service and support to their managed services customers. The output of the analysis became a critical component into their planning process, supplying the time, effort and cost it would take to implement an industry-leading sales, delivery, support and service assurance organization to support a managed services offering in today’s competitive environment.

The results and recommendations generated by the TMNG team were formally presented to client executive management and communicated widely within the client community. The client continues to review their business objectives with regard to managed services as it relates to the overall product portfolio and long term direction of the company.